Job
c. 1618–c. 1630
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 120.3 × 95 cm (47 3/8 × 37 3/8 in.); Framed: 139.7 × 114.3 × 8.3 cm (55 × 45 × 3 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Spain
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey McCormick
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The Latin inscription emerging from the old man’s mouth—NOLI ME CONDEMNARE (“do not condemn me”)—comes from the biblical story of Job, whose piety withstood the test of a series of dire misfortunes. With his hunched posture and torn clothing, he appears resigned to his hardships. The painting’s realism and strong contrasts of light and dark characterize the work of the international followers of Italian painter Caravaggio. Although the artist remains unknown, the painting was probably made in Seville, Spain, in the artistic orbit of artists like Francisco de Zurbarán and Diego Velázquez, or by an artist in Naples, which was then part of the Spanish Empire.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
